I have to be honest with you: This isn't really archaic art. It's just some random stuff I started to draw one day, in the middle of a boring class. It's only that. And then again it's more than that. At first I started doing quick sketches of my teacher or the guys sitting next to me. And after doing this for almost a year I got better at it. I improved. They say practice will often cause that... a certain improvement. If that's the case, I'll continue holding pens and nibs.

September 25, 2012

Brad Meltzer - The Archer’s Quest (Green Arrow)

Matt Wagner (covers / portadas)

“I was dead. I came back to life”. So what do you do once you’ve been resurrected? For Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) the answer is simple: you find out who was at your funeral. Perhaps the one unanswerable question we always ask ourselves is what happens after death; and if we can’t answer that we at least want to know what will happen with our lifeless body once we’re gone. Last will and testaments are there, surely, to provide instructions as to how to dispose of the last vestiges of our existence.As it has become obvious, especially in the recent decade, comic book heroes die on a Monday to come back on a Tuesday. “The death of (random name)” has turned into quite a repetitive and awfully unoriginal title and also the inescapable conclusion of DC or Marvel crossover events. Deaths that have no meaning and no relevance, and ultimately sacrifices that pursue no other goal than its own egolatry egotistical short-term, value-shock reward. Good comic book writers, nevertheless, know how to avoid these common places. Neil Gaiman wrote a brilliant story about Batman’s funeral, and he never acknowledged unnecessary details (such as the way in which Batman had died) because he knew, sooner or later, that Batman would be resurrected. So instead of wasting his time with editorial mandates he wrote the best story about a group of friends and foes paying their last respects to a hero. In a similar way, New York Times’ best-selling author Brad Meltzer decides not to delve into the trivial aspects of Green Arrow’s death, but rather on the repercussions of his absence.So in the opening chapter of Archer’s Quest all we know is that Oliver Queen was dead and then he came back to life. During a rendezvous with Superman, he finally gets to hear how his funeral went. Out of a morbid curiosity, he insists on seeing the photos taken that day. It’s a weird feeling for him to see Dinah Lance (Black Canary) crying; however, besides members of the Justice League of America, the Justice Society of America and the Titans, there is a strange individual in one of the pics: Thomas Blake (AKA Catman, an old enemy of Batman).The next day, Green Arrow has already teamed up with Arsenal (Roy Harper), his former sidekick. And together they find Blake. Catman used to be one of those flamboyant villains that even had a Catcar. Now he is a clumsy and obese individual that is angry at the world and at his own failure as a man. This is no longer the colorful past, this is a disenchanted present that has little or nothing to do with the old days in which Green Arrow was a carefree adventurer very keen on “trick arrows” (in fact, Speedy had even joked about using a lock-pick arrow to break into Blake’s home). Catman explains that he had been sent by Shade. Shade is an immortal with the ability to manipulate shadows. In his long lifespan he has fought with the Golden Age Flash (Jay Garrick), with the Silver Age Flash (Barry Allen) and with the Modern Age Flash (Wally West). Although he has committed crimes, he’s a very honorable man too. And that is why Oliver Queen had chosen him, to carry out his last will. Blake had been sent to Green Arrow’s funeral to make sure the hero was dead. Then, and only then, would Shade proceed to destroy Queen’s personal belongings and erase everything that linked Oliver Queen’s name to the Green Arrow persona.Most superheroes have families, people close to them, and their only protection is anonymity. That’s why keeping a secret identity is so important. And that’s why, as Oliver so aptly puts it, “someone has to play clean up”. Shade, true to his word, had followed Oliver Queen’s instructions with a couple of exceptions. It is then, that the quest really begins. The first stop of Green Arrow and Arsenal is in the abandoned Arrowcave, their secret headquarter (which shared a few resemblances to the batcave). Everything there has been destroyed, everything in it is in ruins, so it’s only fitting that inside the cave they should find a lifeless creature such as Solomon Grundy.

Matt Wagner (covers / portadas)

Soon, Green Arrow and Arsenal must fight against Solomon Grundy’s inhuman strength. The battle is fierce and for all their cunning and abilities, the heroes are normal human beings and can barely survive the attack. In one of the most desperate moments, with his bow destroyed and with no arrows left, Green Arrow pulls his last stunt. He has strong arms, obviously, and that’s exactly what you need when you’re practicing archery. Now, I used to practice archery in my university, four years ago or so. The hardest thing about shooting an arrow accurately is actually having the strength to pull the string all the way until it’s close to your face. For a normal bow (which is the one I had) you need to be able to pull 55 pounds every time you shoot an arrow. More ‘professional’ bows go up to 80 pounds. Oliver Queen’s bow goes up to 103 pounds: “by the end of the day, I’m using all my strength to pull that string”, and that’s exactly what he does. He chokes Solomon Grundy using his bow’s string and applies 103 pounds of pressure. Eventually, the villain falls down. This is an absolutely amazing battle. A battle that fans and writers alike keep remembering, and it even got referenced in big projects such as Avengers / JLA. Oliver Queen’s recompense, id est the object he was looking for, is his old Justice League of America diploma. Wounded and exhausted, Green Arrow and Arsenal still persist in their search. The next item in the list is on the JLA watchtower. Hidden in the trophy room, there are many of Oliver’s trick arrows. The idea of a trick arrow made sense in the 60s, when superhero comic books were exceedingly childish. In the same way that Batman’s utility belt could unrealistically contain thousands of weird gadgets and extravagant instruments (in the ‘camp’ TV series, Batman even had a shark repellent!), the archer had an arrow for everything (most of which could never really be shot using a bow): handcuff arrow, feedback arrow, magnesium flare arrow, boxing glove arrow, etc. None of them are useful now (and, in fact, they haven’t been useful since Mike Grell’s Green Arrow run in the 80s, when he eliminated childish concepts such as trick arrrows), except for one: an arrow with a diamond tip, which Oliver Queen intends to turn into a ring; some day he will ask Dinah Lance to get married. But not today.It is obvious that Brad Meltzer has read thousands of comics. When he was a kid, he used to spend his entire allowance (5 bucks) buying comic books (which were 25 or 50 cents back then). He knows the past of the heroes he writes about, but what’s best, he knows the present and what the future might bring. In the present, happiness and naivety have been greatly diminished. The extravagant Arrowcave has been in ruins for years. And the Flash museum, a place that would always make Oliver smile, is now a cold and empty building, an authentic mausoleum. Still, Roy Harper finds the Flash ring Oliver is looking for. Perhaps the last and only souvenir from the heroic Barry Allen, that ring is the third object to be retrieved. Is the 21st century eminently darker than the 20th century? It would seem like it, as Oliver and Roy continue with their journey only to find the skeletons, the empty husks of what was once the center of the heroes’ lives. Arrowcave no longer exists, Flash museum has turned into a mausoleum. And Ferris Aircraft, the place in which Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) used to work, is now a bankrupted business that has faced foreclosure years ago. Unlocked doors and rusty and semi-destroyed airplanes are all there’s left in the hangar. That and the truck Oliver and Hal drove in when they were young and traveled across the United States. Inside the truck, there’s Green Lantern’s ring, the universe’s most powerful weapon, something that should never fall into the wrong hands. Oliver takes it and puts it in a safe place. “For the past week, Roy and I crossed the country searching for the final remnants of my life”, says Oliver Queen. He’s found everything he was looking for, but as he visits his son Connor Hawke, it’s clear that the thing that matters the most to him can never be found. Oliver has never been a father, he tried his best with Roy Harper, when he became his sidekick (named Speedy back then) at the tender age of 13. He never had the chance to be Connor’s father or to see him grow up. The final chapter of the Archer’s Quest is one of the best DC comics of the past decade. Why? Because we stop seeing Green Arrow as the adventurer, as the superhero, as a member of the Justice League, and we start seeing him as a vulnerable man, as a failed father, as an insecure and confused individual that has, far too late, realized that dying and coming back to life was the easy part. Living still is, and will continue to be, the hardest thing ever.______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

About Me

Comic books are my passion. They are as precious to me as the oxygen I breathe, and perhaps even more. The 9th art has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. And through the years, this passion kept on increasing, thus turning me into an active participant. I started as a reader and later on I became a full-fledged writer and artist. Indeed I’ve found the perfect way to have twice as much pleasure when it comes to comics: I can either read them or write and draw them. And I absolutely love doing both!